Top 10 Highest and Lowest Scoring NBA All-Star Games (and Most and Fewest Points by a Conference)

Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson Face-Off in the 1987 NBA All-Star Game

My prediction is the 2013 NBA All-Star Game will be a high-scoring affair.

That’s not a hard prediction to make. Duh. They’re all high-scoring affairs (or at least have been for a while).

But this one’s going to be more high-scoring than usual, if  the last few years are any indication.

In 2012, East and West combined to score 301 points – second most total in history and one of only three times both conferences united to break the 300-point ceiling.

The 1987 NBA All-Star Game, featuring Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Julius Erving, Dominique Wilkins, Moses Malone, Charles Barkley, Isiah Ihomas and more, totaled two points more.

The 2003 All-Star Game is the other 300-pointer. That one went into double-overtime, the only one to do so.

Of the top 10 highest scoring NBA All-Star Games, five occurred in the 2000′s, including 2010, 2011 and 2012. Four are from the 1980′s and one is from the 1960′s (way to represent old school).

That 1961 game featured Oscar Robertson, Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Bob Cousy, Bill Russell and other basketball all-time greats.

The West dominates, by the way, in the highest scoring games.

HIGHEST SCORING NBA ALL-STAR GAMES

What about lowest scoring NBA All-Star Games?

Well, it makes sense these would come from the early days of the league, when the game, and skill-level, was different.

A full seven of the top 10 lowest scoring All-Star games are from the 1950′s, the first full decade of the NBA. This was mostly before Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.

The 1970′s are the other representative decade.

It’s mostly East winners in the lowest scoring games.

We’ll never see numbers like this ever again.

LOWEST SCORING NBA ALL-STAR GAMES

And before signing off, let’s take a look at the best and worst offensive outputs by an individual conference.

The 2003 Western Conference scored the most points in All-Star Game history, 155.

MOST POINTS, CONFERENCE IN NBA ALL-STAR GAME

FEWEST POINTS, CONFERENCE IN NBA ALL-STAR GAME

Photo: solecollector.com